Langlade County, Wisconsin - Chapter 9, 1922

Chapter 9

Improvement Concerns - Pioneer Lumbermen - The Great Log Drives - Dams on the Wolf and Lily Rivers - Maine Timbermen in Langlade County - A Pioneer Camp.

Lumbering was the principle industry in Langlade County for many years after its organization and twenty years before 1880, the first prospectors and early settlers engaged in that industry. Only pine was cut. River channels were improved by various private improvement companies and logs were driven down the streams to Shawano and Oshkosh on the Wolf River, and to Wausau on the Eau Claire River.

The Wolf River Improvement Company was owned by Oshkosh people. The River Improvement Co. was a firm created to improve the west branch of the Big Eau Claire River. It was organized February 26, 1894, by A. C. Campbell, A. M. Lanning and G. W. Hogben. The Big Eau Claire River Improvement

Dodge of Shawano, cut the first pine north of the Indian Reservation on Section 7, township 31, Range 15 East for L. Beecher of Boston, Mass. Other pioneer lumber operators were: Dewey George of Shawano, Weatherby & Crowe of Oshkosh; T. Crane of Shawano; Welcome Hide, land locater, from Embarrass, Waupaca County, who came first into Langlade County with his fifteen year old son and then moved to Virgin Lake, five miles east of Three Lakes; George Gery of Appleton, George Gilkey of Oshkosh and Choate & Bray of the same place. Logs of each operator were marked and boomed.

The Gardner Da.M Site

Company was organized by John D. Ross, Walter H. Bissell and J. S. Clements. Its object was to improve the Eau Claire River course, to handle, sort and deliver logs and timber in the territory adjacent to the river in Lincoln and Langlade Counties. The Deerskin Log Driving and Improvement Company, organized by Alexander Stewart, Walter Alexander, Thomas Scott and F. P. Hixon, improved Deerskin River from Section 24, Township 42, Range 11 to Section 13, Township 40, Range 10 East at which it then "flowed into a lake in the counties of Langlade and Lincoln." Pioneer lumberman who operated extensively in the Wolf River country in Langlade County as early as 1875 were: Philetus Sawyer, Seymour HoUister, George Buckf.taff, George Rich, Lyman Rumery, Kellogg 8f McCoy, Asa C. Hicks, all of Oshkosh; Daniel Fitzgerald and Col. Hansen of Oshkosh. Theodore

Often the drives were not completed until August. Many logs would sink and frequently log jams were costly. A jam of logs would hold the entire drive up and it was necessary many times to break up the jam for miles on the river. The work was strenuous and exceedingly dangerous and many a pioneer lumberjack and river driver was drowned or suffered a broken limb during one of the exciting drives. Logs were frequently intentionally jammed, during low tide, to raise the water and thus take in the rear. The improvement companies were under a heavy expense to maintain clean river channels to transport the thouands of feet of logs that moved down stream.

The Wolf river and other Langlade County streams were equipped with dams to facilitate log movement. Important dams on the various rivers of eastern Langlade County were : The first dam was below Pine

Lake, followed by another just below Rice Lake. The next was at Pelican, known as the Pelican dam. Near Crandon, Forest County, the Little Chute dam was located and below it we come into Langlade County, where the Upper Post Lake dam is found. The waters from Upper Post Lake formed the principal reservoir dam for log driving on the entire Wolf river south of it. The flood started in the Upper Post Lake and until the logs were nearing Shiocton, dams were necessary. Other dams were : Lower Post Lake dam, Lily river dam, Larzelere dam, George Gardner dam, Keshena Dells dam. On Lily river there were six dams on the main stream and one on Bob Brook.

a ways." A regular mat of ground and cedar had grown over the river south of Gardner's dam from which he drew his conclusion that the river "flowed out of the ground."

Isaac Farrow'S Mistake

Isaac Farrow, pioneer settler in the Lost Nation, wanted to drain White Lake and make a natural hay meadow out of it. He started a drain at the outlet of White Lake (N. E. part). The bottom of the lake was found to be white marl, used to clean silverware, etc., and would be of no value for hay meadowing. His deed is now called Isaac Farrow's mistake.

"NOT AS A CONQUEROR COMES, Oxen, horses and sturdy men played their part in the si ers of Louis Sands of Manistique, Michigan, and W. B. Bon nel camps were located on section li.'i, township HI, Range 11 son, Superintendent, who came from the Pine Tree State ter shanty. The first building at the left is the cook shant the right are hovels used to house the oxen and horses. T ations in 188.'), 20,200,000 feet of pine had been cut. A shin by-product was manufactured. The great forest of pine an been replaced by modern farms. The pine from this camp Weed mill in .Antigo township. The old Sands & Bonnel

They were Lake Dam, at Robert's Lake; eighty rods below was Lake Dam No. 2; one-half mile below was Bowser dam, named after John Bowser and next was the Choate & Bray dam, Turtillotte dam and Big Roll dam, Hayter dam and Craine dam. There was a dam on the east branch of the Lily River. On Pickerel Creek there were two dams; on Swamp Creek there were two dams, and above and below Freedenland (Louis Motzf eld's place) on Swamp Creek two dams were erected. The Keshena Improvement Company owned many of the dams in Langlade County.

Gilmore'S Mistake

A Civil Engineer and surveyor whose surname was Gilmore surveyed the course of the Wolf River in 1868 for Oshkosh lumbermen and reported that "no pine could be driven on the river as it ran underground

THEV, THE TRUE HEARTED CAME." aughter of Langlade County pine. The camping headquartnel of Chicago, III., are reproduced here. The Sands & Bon- East on the site of the J. J. Laughlin farm. Henry Hudis shown back of a snow covered stump in front of the ceny, the second is the sleeping shanty and the log structures at he camps shown were erected in 188t and at the close of opergle mill was then erected and in 188(;-87. 25,000.000 feet of the d hardwood shown back of the camp buildings has long since and many others in Langlade County was hauled to the J. H. camp granary is still in existence.

Woodsmen Scoffed At Antigo Flats

In 1874 two hardy woodsmen journeyed over the Indian trails from Wausau through the present limits of Langlade County to the camp headquarters of Moore & Galloway, three miles east of Dobbston. They told the Camp Superintendent, the timber prospectors, cruisers, lumberjacks and drivers of the wonderful region to the west. One of the men remarked to Henry Hudson: "The country is full of pine and splendid tracts of hardwood, but it would take a whole year to get 1,000 feet of the product to the Wolf River." He never realized that the "Iron Trail' 'as the pioneer called the railroad, would penetrate into that same territory before seven years passed, and that in fifty years the same region would be the most productive agricultural section of the territory now comprising Langlade County.

Pioneer Lumbermen From Maine

Maine has long been known as the Pine Tree State, because of the vast areas of pine forests within its limits. Years ago the woodland area of Maine covered over three-fourths of the total area of the entire Commonwealth. With the passing of the primeval forests of that state many of its native sons moved westward. Thus the pine forests of Maine furnished to Langlade County many of the pioneers in the logging, river driving and lumbering industry of the Wolf River country. These sturdy followers of the stately pine often took up lands and homesteads in the regions slashed with the result that the descendants of many are still living along the route of the Military Road or in other sections of the county. Many of the Maine pine men moved on westward and their progeny are found at this day in the great forests of Canadian- British Columbia.

With the pine slashed, the purpose of the pioneer lumberman was accomplished. Hardwood was a burden and an expense. The knotty and poorer grade of logs were usually left in the forests to become a prey to future raging forest fires. At first only the pine timber along the banks of the Wolf and Lily rivers was cut, but with timber operations increasing, the extent of the slashed area also increased. The "cutover" land of that day was then placed on the market to be taken up by the first settlers. Often they became discouraged and would abandon their "hole in the woods" as the first clearings were called. Land was then considered worthless. It would not in many instances yield sufficient products to pay taxes. Thus the land speculator, the tax-title lawyer, great land agencies and many who invested "pine profits" took up the lands of the county. They paid the munificent sum of from fifty cents to two dollars per acre for land that today could not be purchased for $150.00 per acre. The delicate problems envolving the ownership and the title to thousands of acres of land demanded expert attention. Thus the tax title attorney became a necessity. Attorney W. H. Webster of Oconto and Attorney George W. Latta of Antigo, were the acknowledged tax title experts in the vicinity.

The story of the pine hunter is now but a memory only to the oldest settlers. The lumberman and timber cruiser of that era are passing away swiftly. Only through the story teller of tomorrow - "the art preservative of arts" will the traditions of the early lumber districts be preserved.